Machine for hulling and polishing grains.



I A. B. coucn. MACHINE FOB HULLING AND POLISHING GRAINS.

(Application filed Mar. 29, 1898.)

No. 629,547. Patented July 25, I899.

(No Model.)

2 Sheets-Sheet MQWZE Quack,

J gifl'orizgyl Patented July 25, 1899.

A. B. COUCH.

MACHINE FOR HULLING AND POLISHING GRAINS.

(Application filed Mar.- 29, 1898.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

(No Model.)

IIIIIII i!l|!)).

Fave/4 01? vil e/7.]? 6'04 r1: mamas PETERS w. PHo'ro-uwa, wnnmcnon. n. c.

UNITED STATES? PATENT FFICE.

ALBERT B. COUCH, OF PELHAM, GEORGIA.

MACHINE FOR HULLING AND POLISHING GRAINS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent in"). 629,547, dated July 25, 1899.

Application filed March 29, 1898.

T at whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT B. CoUoH, a citizen of the United States of America, re-

siding at Pelham, in the county of Mitchell shelling the kernels to provide means for pol.-

ishing, winnowing, and screening the same and sorting them by passing them through suitably-graded screens.

The invention consists in the improved construction described in the following specifi cation and pointed out in the claims,

Inthe drawings forming part of this specification, Figure 1 represents a machine constructed according to this invention, shown in side elevation, certain parts thereof being broken away. Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-sec tion on line 2 2, Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section on line 3 3, Fig. 2. Fig. 4 is a perspective View of a stationary polishingdisk. Fig. 5 is a perspective View of a rotating polishing-disk.

Referring to the drawings, A represents the frame of the machine, and A the casing inclosing parts thereof. On the top of said frame, at one end thereof, is the driving-shaft 2, on which is secured a sprocket 2, and means for rotating said shaft may consist of a crankhandle, as shown, if hand-power is to be used, or a pulley may be substituted if mechanical power is to be used.

About midway between the ends of the frame A of the machine and parallel with the driving-shaft 2 is located the shaft 4, extending transversely across the machine like the shaft 2. Said shaft 4 is also provided with a sprocket 4", and a chain 6 engages the said sprockets 2 and 4 for rotating the shaft 4 at a suitable speed. On said shaft 4 is secured acone 8, which is inclosed by a cone-shaped casing, preferably made in two parts 10 and Serial No. 675,530. (No model.)

12-, the upper part 10 thereof being removable from the lower part 12, whereby said cone 8 is made easily accessible for the purpose of cleaning it or for adjusting or replacing parts of said cone which may have become worn. Said parts of the cone 8 consist of several bars 3, spirally applied to said cone (preferably in dovetailed grooves, as shown) and removable therefrom. Said bars 3 are provided with teeth intermeshing with similar toothed bars 7, removably applied in grooves 8 to the casin g, or they may be provided with knife-edges 17, only one of which is shown in the drawings and which may be located in either the upper or lower portion of the casing, or both, it depending upon the kind of grain or seeds to be treated, or said bars in the cone may be furnished with some yielding surface, as rubber, and operate against for the shaft 4 (see Fig. 2) of any well-known construction.

Between the bars 3 on the cone 8 are provided spirally-arranged grooves or depressions 9, extending from one end to the other of the cone, which permit a larger quantity of grain or seed to be introduced between the cone and casing and which, owing to their spiral form, serve to convey said grains or seed toward the delivery end of the cone.

The shaft 4 is provided on one end thereof with a suitable balance-wheel and has a pulley 3O secured thereto inproximity to said balance-wheel, over which a belt 30 runs to a pulley 31 on shaft 26, on which last-named shaft is supported a fan-wheel 28, suitably incased and adapted to send a current of air through the screens 34 in the direction of the arrow shown thereon. -Any chafi or dust, &c. falling from the lower part 12 of the conecasing through the perforations 12 therein drops to the ground.

The parts 10 and 12 of the casing are suitably supported concentric with the cone 8 in the frame of the machine, the large end of the casing being closed and the small end leading into an opening in the center of the stationary polishing-disk 16,which is supported in any suitable manner. On the end of the shaft 4 which extends beyond the small end of the cone is secured the rotating polishingdisk 18, which is adjustable toward and from the disk 16, the adjoining faces of said disks being parallel. The upper part 10 of the con ecasing has an opening through the upper surface thereof, over which. is placed a hopper 14, into which is fed the material to be treated in the machine. The bottom 15 of the hopper is provided with openings through which the grain may fall into thepart 10 of the casing, anda slide 15 lies under said bottom 15 and has perforations therein coinciding in position and area to the perforations in the bottom of the hopper. By moving the slide the areas of the perforations through which the grain is delivered to the machine may be regulated as desired.

Supported in the top of the hopperis a shaft a, to which are secured agitating-fingers b, which extend down into the grain in the hopper 14, the bottom 15 of which is curved to correspond to the swing of said fingers b, and the movement of said fingers back and forth in said hopper prevents the clogging of the grain therein. Said fingers are given the requisite reciprocating swing in the hopper by a crank on the end of theshaft a, connected to one end of a rod d,whose opposite end has an eccentric connection with the shaft 4-, the rotation of .the latter imparting the necessary motion to said shaft a.

on the face thereof opposite the face of the rotating polishing-disk 18 with a series of step formations consisting of parallel plane surfaces f, extending from the edge of said disk inward toward the center and which lie Y at a slight angle relative to the plane of rotation of the said rotating disk 18. Said inclined plane surfaces cover practically all of the operative part of the said disk and preferably are covered with rawhide or some similar substance to the end that the grains or seeds subjected to the rolling process between said disks 16 and 18 shall not be crushed thereby.

Said rotating disk 18 is provided with a sleeve 18, on which it may rotate freely or to which it may be secured by a set-screw 22, and the sleeve 18 is also secured to the shaft 4 by the set-screw 22. The purpose of this construction is to provide means for rotating the' disk 18 with the shaft 4, or, if a direction of rotation opposite to that of the shaft 4 is ployed to secure the sleeve in its bearing in such position that the degree of separation of the contiguous faces of the disks 16 and 18 may be proper for the kind of grain or seeds being operated on. a

The disk 18 is preferably provided with a facing m, of metal, (steel being usually used,) and it is provided with short radial perforations m, as shown; Said disk 18 is of skeleton form, as indicated in Fig. 5 in dotted lines, and the chaff and dust from the grain can thus pass through the perforations 'm' in the metal facing m and falling into the space other receptacle, all as shown in Fig. 1. The

three screens shown in the drawings are all secured to a common frame 0, supported for a sliding movement on a transverse rod 0 or some similar support, and the opposite end of the frame is supported on two loosely-hung arms 0 secured by one end to the casing A and by the other end to the side of the screenframe 0.

Near the upper and outer end of the screenframe 0 and on the casing A is secured an elbow-lever D, one arm of which is connected through a short lever D to the end of the screen-frame and the other arm of which is connected by a rod 38, extending to the shaft The stationary polishing-disk 16 is provided 26, on which is an eccentric to which the end of said rod 38 is connected and whereby shalt ing movement is imparted to said screenframe 0. The rotation of the disk 18 throws the grain or seed emerging from between the disks 16 and 18 toward the upper end of the screens, as indicated in Fig. 1, thus separating it and giving the air-blast free passage through it, whereby all dust and chaff are thoroughly removed.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Pat-- ent, is r Y 1. In combination in a machine for hulling and polishing seeds and grains, a suitable frame, a cone-shaped casing axially separable, a shaft supported in said frame for rotation axially in said casing, a cone fixed on said shaft, huller-bars having abrading-surfaces projecting beyond the inner surface of said casing and removably secured thereto, spirally-formed huller-bars having abradingsurfaces projecting beyond the surface of said cone and removably secured thereto, a rotatable disk supported on said cone-shaft, a stationary disk parallel with and in proximity to said rotatable disk secured to said casing near the small end of said cone, the casing having an opening centrally located relative to said cone whereby the rotation of said cone will cause seeds to be delivered between said stationary and rotatable disks, a screen located under said disks, a fan for directing a current of air across said screen, a hopper supported on said casing abovesaid cone, an opening in said casing under said hopper, and means for regulating the area of said opening, substantially as described.

2. In a machine for hulling and polishing grains and seeds, means for effecting said hulling and for polishing the kernels of said grains or seeds, consisting of a suitably-supported and axially-separable cone-shaped casing, a cone of the same angle and having a smaller diameter than the interior of said cassupported shaft to which said cone is secured tating said cone and said rotatable disk,and a suitable grading-screen for receiving grains or seeds from said disks, substantially as described.

ALBERT B. COUCH.

Witnesses:

O. L. STANLEY, H. J. ADAMs. 

